ISR Spring Seminar Courses

Focus Groups for Social Research

Instructor	Darla Rhyne
Date	Monday, May 4, 1998
Time	9:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon and 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Location	Room 3004 Vari Hall
Enrolment Limit	25

This course is an introduction to focus group research. The morning session will deal with the basic features of focus group planning and implementation. The afternoon session will consider practical aspects of conducting focus groups, with a special emphasis on moderator techniques. Participants are invited to raise concrete problems for discussion relating to focus group design, the identification and selection of participants, and data collection.

An Introduction to Questionnaire Design

Instructor	Professor Michael Ornstein
Date	Wednesday, May 6, 1998
Time	9:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon and 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Location	Room B01 Schulich School of Business
Enrolment Limit	45

This course provides a broad review of the research on questionnaire design, setting out design guidelines but also showing how good survey design involves researchers carefully defining their own goals. The review will be set in the context of three generations of research on question design, ending with a detailed discussion of the last decade's cognitive approaches. In addition to individual items, there will be discussion of the questionnaire as a whole and of 'context' effects deriving from the sequence of questions.

Collecting Data in Telephone and Mail Surveys

Instructor	John Pollard
Date	Friday, May 8, 1998
Time	9:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon and 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Location	Room B01 Schulich School of Business
Enrolment Limit	25

The course begins with a discussion of the relative merits of mail and telephone surveys, including their advantages and limitations in terms of questionnaire content, sampling issues, and costs. There follows a detailed review of the implementation of the two types of surveys, emphasizing data quality and maximizing response rates through careful planning and monitoring the survey in progress. The number and timing of mailouts, as well as the layout and length of mail surveys, are discussed. For telephone surveys, the focus is on sample design, hiring and training interviewers, interviewer effects, and strategies for encouraging respondents to participate in the research.

An Introduction to Sample Design for Surveys

Instructor	Professor Michael Ornstein
Date	Monday, May 11, 1998
Time	9:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon and 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Location	Room B01 Schulich School of Business
Enrolment Limit	45

The morning is devoted to a review of the statistics of sample design, including alternative sample designs, the calculation of errors from sample data, the use of weights, and decisions about sample size. The afternoon session deals with sample selection in a number of practical situations, including sampling from lists, drawing samples of organizations, two- stage sampling strategies for population sectors, and random digit dialing. The course concludes with a very brief introduction to resampling methods for computing errors in complex samples. While the material is presented at an introductory level, it may be difficult to understand without some background in elementary statistics.

Interpreting Qualitative Data - An Overview

Instructor	Darla Rhyne
Date	Wednesday, May 13, 1998
Time	9:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon and 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Location	Room 3004 Vari Hall
Enrolment Limit	25

The focus of this workshop will be on strategies for analyzing qualitative social science research materials, such as field notes and transcripts of in-depth interviews and focus groups. Organized around the major themes of keeping track of what you are doing, what you are finding, and how you are feeling about it, the session will pay particular attention to coding and indexing as integral components of the analytic process.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS

Professor Michael Ornstein

Michael Ornstein is Associate Professor of Sociology and Associate Director of ISR, where he is responsible for research methodology. Recently he has conducted research on socio- economic differences among ethno-racial groups, occupational and educational mobility in Canada, and gender differences in university pay and promotion.

John Pollard, BA

John Pollard received his BA in French from the University of Toronto and his BA (Honours) in Sociology from York University. He is presently an MA candidate in York's Graduate Sociology Programme. Mr. Pollard manages research projects at the Institute for Social Research and edits the Institute's Newsletter. He is currently researching attitudes toward euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Darla Rhyne, PhD

Darla Rhyne, Research Associate at ISR, holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Toronto. Her research areas include community and interpersonal relations, health, education, ethnic studies, and quality of life. Dr. Rhyne has considerable expertise in qualitative research methods including community fieldwork, focus groups, and participant observation.